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CTOB ER 2014
12POWERFULWEBSITES
THAT CAN REPLACE
YOUR DESKTOP
SOFTWARE
WINDOWS RUMORS: EVERYTHING WE KNOW SO FAR
LUS
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OCTOBER
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About Us
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Our mothers.
Our daughters.Our best friends.
together,
we carry the future.
Available at your localSafeway or onlineatsafewayfoundation.orgduring the month ofOctoberwhile supplies last.
e Safeway Foundation and the Entertainment Industry Foundation are 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organizations. Statistic from American Cancer Society. Photo by Andrew Macpherson
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$2.14 from the sale of the $4.99 reusable totewill benefit The Safeway Foundation to fund
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NEWS
Windows 9 rumors:Eveything we knowso far
Hidden gems ofIDF 2014
Google wantsto test Internetdelivey via dronein New Mexico
3 ways Microsoftcan ruin Mine-caftand 3 ways itcan make it better
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NEWS
INDOWS 9? THRESHOLD? Or just plain Windows?
Whatever Microsoft ends up calling its next opeating
system, its shaping up to be another big change from
the Windows that came before it.
Only this time, Microsoft is looking to appease its user base
especially in the enterprise realminstead of scaring people away. If
the past few months of leaks and rumors are accuate, Microsoft will
W
Tech and trends that will affect you today and beyond.
Windows 9 rumors:
Eveything we know so farHeres what we expect to see on September 30. BY JARED NEWMAN
NEWS
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undo some of the most dastic changes in Windows 8, but it will also
kick off a major tansformation for Windowsone thats long overdue.
Microsoft is likely to reveal at least some of these changes at a Septem-ber 30 event(go.pcworld.com/Sept30). Heres a look at all the details
that have leaked so far, and how we expect it all to come together:
Undoing the damageThe biggest changes in Windows 9 will be aimed at desktop users who
never wanted the dastic design overhaul of Windows 8. That means
desktop users will get their classic Stat menu backit will pop up in
the bottom-left corner instead of taking over the entire screen as itdoes in Windows 8.
As a recent video leak showed (go.pcworld.com/win9vidleak), the order
of this menu may be a bit different than it was in Windows 7. Folder
shotcuts could move from the right side to the top, essentially
switching places with where pinned apps used to be. By shuling these
shotcuts around, Microsoft leaves room for users to pin Live Tiles on the
right side of the menu, where they can be resized and reordered in a grid
A leaked view
of Windows 9s
reborn Stat
menu.
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view. (Users who prefer the full-screen Stat menu can still switch it on
through Taskbar and Stat menu propeties settings, the video revealed.)
Beyond the Stat menu, Microsoft will likely deemphasize the charm
bar and the recent app switcher, both introduced in Windows 8. Many
charm-bar functionssuch as sharing and printingwill get folded
directly into the menus of Windows Store apps, and the recent apps
sidebar will give way to the classic desktop taskbar. Again, both features
will remain available as options according to the latest leaks (go.pcworld.com/win9leakdt),but they wont seve much purpose for desktop users.
An isolated convergenceMicrosoft hasnt entirely given up on its plan to have one Windows
running across phones, tablets, and PCs. But with Windows 9,
Microsoft will likely tweak its original vision, with asepaate
smatphone(go.pcworld.com/win9sep)and tablet version that
emphasizes the modern inteface and Windows Store apps.
The Windows Storeapps
may come to the desktop.
http://www.go.pcworld.com/win9leakdthttp://www.go.pcworld.com/win9leakdthttp://www.go.pcworld.com/win9leakdthttp://www.go.pcworld.com/win9leakdthttp://go.pcworld.com/win9sephttp://go.pcworld.com/win9sephttp://www.go.pcworld.com/win9leakdthttp://www.go.pcworld.com/win9leakdthttp://go.pcworld.com/win9sep -
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It sounds like Windows RT all over again, but with some key
differences: This version will run on smatphones as well as tablets,
and may apply to both ARM-based and Intel Atombased devices,according to ZDNets May Jo Foley(go.pcworld.com/zdfoley).Most
impotantly, this version may not include the desktop, potentially
eliminating some of the confusion that made Windows RT a
nonstater in the first place. If Microsoft can deliver a touch-friendly
version of Office in tandem, it may finally deliver on the promise of
simpler touch-based computing that RT never quite fulfilled.
The only question is what all this means for hybrid devices such as
the Suface Pro 3 and the Lenovo ThinkPad 10. This is just speculation,but it seems likely that Intel-based hybridsespecially larger
modelswill get the desktop-centric version of Windows with the
option to enable some tablet-friendly features.
Redoing desktop sofwareIts clear that Microsoft wants to create greater
sepaation between lightweight touch devices
and taditional PCs driven by mice, tackpads,
and keyboards. But the glue holding them all
together will be the Windows Store.
With Windows 8, Microsoft introduced the
Windows Store to revamp software around
tablets and touchscreens, but this effot didnt go as planned.
Between slow adoption of Windows tablets and minimal interest in
modern apps from taditional PC users, the Windows Store was soonignored by major developers and overrun by junk. Microsoft just
recently stated cleaning up the mess.
Windows 9 will represent a second chance, as Microsoft makes a
greater push for Windows Store apps on the desktop. Users will be able
to run these apps in windowed or full-screen mode, and theyll have
icons along the taskbar just as with any other progam. And unlike
legacy desktop software, Windows Store apps can take advantage of
new features such as the Share charm, Snap view, easier high-definition
Bringing WindowsStore apps to thedesktop introducessome challenges.
NEWS
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display suppot, and rich notifications. The store also provides a safe,
centalized location where users can download and update software.
Bringing Windows Store apps to the desktop introduces somechallenges. Laptop and desktop users have different needs than phone
and tablet users, and Microsoft may need to change the way it cuates
the store for each group. But if the huge base of taditional PC users
takes a liking to these apps, it could make the store more vibant for
eveyone, and finally help Windows software move into the modern ea.
More bells and whistles, of course
If Windows 9 were only about damage control, it wouldnt makea vey compelling upgade for satisfied Windows 7 users. So its no
surprise that Microsoft is throwing in some new features to get
their attention.
According to recent leaks, vitual desktops will be a major addition in
Windows 9. Similar to the Workspaces feature in Ubuntu Linux(go.
pcworld.com/ubuntulinux),vitual desktops will let users spread their
work across multiple desktops, which will free them from clutter as
they move between tasks. Vitual desktops should be controlled
A leaked look
at the vitual
desktop
suppot being
tested for
Windows 9.
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through a window icon on the left
side of the taskbar, so users can
switch between workspaces with acouple of clicks.
Microsoft may also bring seveal
features from Windows Phone over
to the PC side, including the vitual
assistant Cotana and a notification
center that pops up from the right
side of the desktop taskbar. Wi-Fi
Sense and Stoage Sense could alsomake the jump from Windows Phone, making it easier for users to
get online and free up exta stoage space.
A fresh start for Windows
So far, Microsoft hasnt given a proper name to the next version of
Windows. Its code name is repotedly Threshold, and Windows 9 is
merely a placeholder name that pundits and the press have been using.
But theres a theoy, pushed mainly by The Verges Tom Warren
(go.pcworld.com/theverge),that Microsoft will simply go with the
name Windows. The idea is that Windows 9 isnt just another
upgade, but the end of the Windows upgade cycle as we know it.
Instead of delivering major paid upgades evey two or three years,
Microsoft could switch to a long lifespan of free updates, following
the lead of iOS, Mac OS X, Android, and Chrome OS.
With a new CEO and a new manta(go.pcworld.com/newmanta),Microsoft is clearly looking to wipe the slate clean. Dont be surprised
if the name and the business model attempt to break Microsoft from
its past, even as the product itself brings back much of what
taditional PC users have been waiting for.
WindowsPhones
digital assistant,
Cotana, could
be headed to
Windows PCs
and tablets.
NEWS
http://go.pcworld.com/thevergehttp://go.pcworld.com/thevergehttp://go.pcworld.com/newmantrahttp://go.pcworld.com/newmantrahttp://go.pcworld.com/newmantrahttp://go.pcworld.com/theverge -
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Hidden gems of IDF 2014BY MARK HACHMAN
THE INTEL DEVELOPER Forum 2014 was stangely muted. The company
competed for attention with the Apple Watch and other announcements.
Also, because Intel had announced its Broadwell technology (go.pcworld.
com/broadwell)just weeks before, the anticipation that accompanied many
past IDF conferences simply wasnt there.
But that doesnt mean IDF was a bust. Browsing the booths and tech
sessions, we saw a surprising amount of technologysuch as the Intel Core
The Synapsemind-
controlled dress, by
Dutch designer Anouk
Wipprecht, is poweredby Intels Edison chip,
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M chips that Intels Kirk Skaugen held up, or the successor to
those chips, Skylake.
Stroll the halls with us to see the hidden gems of the show.
12K multimonitor gamingRemember when a game running at 1024-by-768-pixel resolution
was something special? A 2K display is impressive. And the new 4K
monitors? Mind-blowing. So why not three monitors?
Yep. Intel showed off a rig runningaccording to a booth
representativetwo Haswell-E processors: the 8-core,
16-thread 5960X; and the 6-core, 12-thread 5930K. Combined,
the two powered a 12K demo ofAssassins Creed 4: Black Flag,
with three 4K monitors running side by side. Inside the box was
a true quad SLI setup using four Nvidia GeForce GTX TitanBlacks, taking up a total of 40 PCI-E lanes. Which is a long-
winded way of saying awesome.
NUC, meet the half NUCIntels Next Units of Computing offer a tiny little take on desktop
computing, squeezing a bare-bones PC inside of something about
as small as a package of amen noodles. And yes, they even include
a next-geneation Broadwell chip(go.pcworld.com/nextgenbroad).
NEWS
Intel showed
off a gaming rig
running three
4K monitors
side by side.
NEWS
http://www.go.pcworld.com/nextgenbroadhttp://www.go.pcworld.com/nextgenbroadhttp://www.go.pcworld.com/nextgenbroadhttp://www.go.pcworld.com/nextgenbroadhttp://www.go.pcworld.com/nextgenbroadhttp://www.go.pcworld.com/nextgenbroad -
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But if thats too much, then consider a half
NUC. With an Atom chip packed inside, this
is a computer for those who dont want topay exta for Intels next-geneation Core
chips, as cool as they might be.
Eye in the skySome of you may have been tempted to watch Eagle Eye, Shia
LeBeous take on a CCTV society run amok. But the future is
hereand its advetised. Intel showed off a taffic-analytics
solution from a patner that could tack video of individualswalking down a street or in a parking lotand apparently make
guesses as to their gender and other personal information. Always
watching, quietly judging
Air sensors as squirrel foodEarlier this year, Intel began installing atmospheric sensors in
The iKeglets
you know when
its empty and
ready for a refill.
Inel has insalled
amospheric sensors...o beter feed ishungry daa ceners.
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London; Dublin, Ireland; and San Jose,
Californiathe better to feed Intels
hungy data centers.The plastic boxes mounted in or near
Hyde Park in London an into two
unexpected problems: Insatiably curious
squirrels pillaged the boxes, so the
researchers began using metal chassis.
For the boxes located too close to the
street, eveything not soldered down was
jarred loose by the constant vibation.Squirrels: not exactly a problem that
eveyone plans for.
The iKegWho wouldnt want a keg that would signal you when empty, and
automatically request a replacement after being tapped out? Such
was the justification for the iKeg, which Intel showed off at its
Developer Forum. Its research. Yeah.
Dell Venue 8 7000 tablet makes RealSense realIDFs celebrity moment occurred when Michael Dell introduced the
Dell Venue 8 7000 tablet(go.pcworld.com/dellvenue8rev) onstage.
The device also features the first RealSense 3D camea(go.pcworld.
com/realsense3drev) integated into a tablet.
Like the Microsoft Kinect, the RealSenses dual lenses let the cameasee like our own two eyes docalculating distance and depth.
This 8-inch tablet and its full 2K display are lovely. Intel has
developed apps that can measure something just by looking at
it. If this is what we can expect from the next geneation of
tablets, sign us up.
Kid and Plae
One of the companies thats going to use the RealSense technol-
NEWS
The DellVenue
8 7000 tablets
RealSense 3D
camea can
measure things
by calculating
distance anddepth.
http://go.pcworld.com/dellvenue8revhttp://go.pcworld.com/dellvenue8revhttp://www.go.pcworld.com/realsense3drevhttp://www.go.pcworld.com/realsense3drevhttp://www.go.pcworld.com/realsense3drevhttp://www.go.pcworld.com/realsense3drevhttp://www.go.pcworld.com/realsense3drevhttp://www.go.pcworld.com/realsense3drevhttp://go.pcworld.com/dellvenue8rev -
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ogy is Plae, a manufacturer of custom childrens footwear. Plae
executives said the company can use the RealSense camea
technology to estimate foot size within just a few millimeters, so
people may confidently buy shoes over the Internet after theyve
scanned their feet.
LenovoPad Tab S8, powered by MerrifieldIntels next-geneation Merrifield chip (go.pcworld.com/merrifield)
may not have a future in smatphones, but it can do just fine in a
tablet. At IDF, Intel showed off seveal unreleased tablets powered by
Merrifield. The first is a Lenovo tablet, encased in a coloful yellow
plastic shell.
A label on the back identified this tablet as the Lenovo Sparks,which may or may not be a code name.
Intel Health appIntel has clearly invested time developing its own software to take
advantage of its processors capabilities. Remember, Intel has an
entire software division, which it acquired from a company called
Wind River a few years back. The Intel Health app it has produced
doesnt look half bad.
Intel showed
off its object-
recognition
technology.
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Intels phone security technology
A form of Intels Identity Protection Technology already appears inlaptops, and now the company is adding it to smatphones and
tablets. Normally, banks will have
customers provide a second form of
identification by issuing them a dongle,
which provides a time-limited security code
in addition to a password. Intels technology
uses the smatphone as the token, allowing
the user to simply tap a code thats beensent to the phone in order to identify the
user to a bank or shopping site.
Intels version of Amazons FireflyObject recognition is cutting-edge, whether it involves
automatically sensing obstacles(go.pcworld.com/wheel)while
driving or its incorpoated in a product such as Amazons Firely(go.
pcworld.com/firely).
But while Amazons technology tacitly encouages you to stock up
on toilet paper and memoy cards, Intels is much more prosaic: It
matches images seen by your tablet or smatphone against a
database of images. In this sense, its much more akin to Google
Goggles(go.pcworld.com/goggles), a technology that became little
more than a curiosity. Will Intels object recognition do the same?
Intels Edison chipIf weaables are the next big thing, then Intel hopes the Edison chip
will power them. At IDF, Intel said that its Edison chip was shipping.
Edison, a member of Intels embedded Quark family of chips, is tiny
about the size of a quater, complete with motherboard. Intel hopes
that weaables makers will pay about $50 apiece for an Edison chip
and development board, that they can use to come up with unique
ideas, like...
NEWS
If wearables are thenext big thing, Intelhopes the Edison
chip will power them.
http://www.techhive.com/article/2597645/googles-driverless-car-will-get-a-steering-wheel-after-all.htmlhttp://www.techhive.com/article/2597645/googles-driverless-car-will-get-a-steering-wheel-after-all.htmlhttp://www.techhive.com/article/2597645/googles-driverless-car-will-get-a-steering-wheel-after-all.htmlhttp://www.techhive.com/article/2597645/googles-driverless-car-will-get-a-steering-wheel-after-all.htmlhttp://www.techhive.com/article/2365825/fire-and-vines-6-videos-of-the-amazon-fire-phone-in-action.htmlhttp://www.techhive.com/article/2365825/fire-and-vines-6-videos-of-the-amazon-fire-phone-in-action.htmlhttp://www.techhive.com/article/2365825/fire-and-vines-6-videos-of-the-amazon-fire-phone-in-action.htmlhttp://www.techhive.com/article/2365825/fire-and-vines-6-videos-of-the-amazon-fire-phone-in-action.htmlhttp://www.go.pcworld.com/goggleshttp://www.go.pcworld.com/goggleshttp://www.go.pcworld.com/goggleshttp://www.go.pcworld.com/goggleshttp://www.go.pcworld.com/goggleshttp://www.techhive.com/article/2365825/fire-and-vines-6-videos-of-the-amazon-fire-phone-in-action.htmlhttp://www.techhive.com/article/2365825/fire-and-vines-6-videos-of-the-amazon-fire-phone-in-action.htmlhttp://www.techhive.com/article/2597645/googles-driverless-car-will-get-a-steering-wheel-after-all.html -
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Dont mess with the dress
This lovely, futuristic Synapse mind-controlled dress is powered by
Intels Edison chip. Designed by Dutch designer Anouk Wipprecht, its3D-printed to fit the models cuves. The kicker is that the dress
responds to the cues of the wearer: If the dress senses that someone
undesiable is approaching the wearer, it lashes a warning.
Synapse, however, is warm milk compared to Wipprechts spider dress
(go.pcworld.com/spiderdress),which unfolds menacingly at the
wearers command. Creepy!
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NEWS
Google wants to testInternet deliveyvia drone in New MexicoBY MARTYN WILLIAMS
-
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GOOGLE IS PLANNING to test Internet delivey by drone high above New
Mexico, according to a government filing.
The company has asked the Fedeal Communications Commission forpermission to use two blocks of frequencies for the tests, which are
scheduled to last about six months and to begin in October. They will be
conducted above an area of more than 1400 square kilometers (about
870 square miles) in cental New Mexico, to the east of Albuquerque.
Google recently acquired Titan Aerospace, a firm that specializes in
developing solar and electric unmanned aerial systems for high altitude,
long enduance lights, Google said in its application. These systems may
eventually be used to provide Internet connections in remote areas orhelp monitor environmental damage, such as oil spills or deforestation.
Google said its application for tempoay permission to make the
tansmissions was needed for demonstation and testing of [REDACTED] in
a carefully controlled environment.
The FCC allows companies to redact cetain potions of their applications
when they might provide too much information to competitors.
In the application, Google said it wants to use two blocks of
frequencies, one between 910MHz and 927MHz and one between
2.4GHz and 2.414GHz. Both are so-called industrial, scientific and
medical (ISM) bands typically used for unlicensed opeations.
The application has not yet been approved.
Its the latest in a series of moves by the company to ty Internet
delivey from the skies.
The company last year unveiled its ambitious Project, which uses a series
of high-altitude balloons that loat in winds at about 20 kilometers (65,000feet) above the eath. The first experiments with Loon involved using a
tansmission system based on Wi-Fi, but earlier this year the company
began experimenting with LTE cellular tansmissions (go.pcworld.com/
amazonlte)at a test site in Nevada.
Google acquired Titan Aerospace in April of this year for an
undisclosed amount of money.
Google could not immediately be reached for comment.
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NEWS
3 ways Microsoft can ruinMinecaftand 3 ways itcan make it betterBY BRAD CHACOS
WITH MORE THAN 50 million
copies sold, a robust line oftoys and other accessories,
and a near-endless legion of
fan-created YouTube Lets
Plays, theres no doubt that
indie game Minecaft is a
colossal hit. Heck, its a
veritable cultual phenom-
enon. But now, theres reason
to question the future of
the blockbuster game, as
Microsoft has bought
Minecaftmaker Mojang for $2.5 billion. Whats more, Mojang
founder and Minecaftmastermind Markus Notch Persson is
depating once the deal is complete. (Read his farewell letter
to Minecaft fans [go.pcworld.com/minecafthd]).This is a monumental moment for the future of Minecaft:
Will Microsofts structure and piles of cash boost Mojang to ever-
more-statospheric heights, or will the company fizzle out? (And the
less said about Games for Windows Live, the better.) Its all in how
Microsoft handles it.
Here are three things Microsoft could do that would ruin
Minecaftand three things it could do that would make the game
even better.
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1. Stuff it ull o in-app purchasesIn an ea when so many games are given away for free, only to be riddled
with in-app purchases that cripple their design, Minecaftis a breath of
fresh air. Whether youre on a PC, a mobile device, or a gaming console like
the Xbox 360, you pay one lat fee for Minecaft, which entitles you to free
updates for the life of the game. If Microsoft takes the Electronic
Ats route and introduces in-app purchases that unlock the games more
obscure caftable items or entirely new content, itll suck a lot of the
magic out of the games sense of wonder and exploation.
2. Restrict the game to Microsof platormsMicrosoft is saying all the right things for now, promising to keepMinecaft
alive on competing platforms, including PlayStation, iOS, and Android.
Indeed, Minecafts far-lung availability plays right into newfound
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadellas focus on cross-platform sevicesa pushthat has seen Office revealed for the iPad before Windows tablets.
But plan[s] to continue to make Minecaftavailable across platforms
can easily be changed; witness how Microsofts other major game
studios focus solely on Microsoft platforms. And even if Microsoft keeps
the game alive on other opeating systems, there will no doubt be a
great temptation to make the Windows and Xbox versions the definitive
ones in some way.
Dont do it.
Minecaft
Pocket Edition
is available for
both Android
and iOS.
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3. Transorm Minecraf into a visually richproductivity toolMicrosoft has to resist the urge to make Minecaftinto something itsnot, and especially to avoid shoehorning the game into Microsofts
ovearching productivity focus. IfMinecafts open world can be
conveted into some sot of visually rich productivity tool, let it come
from the community! The games already been used to make working
hard drives(go.pcworld.com/minecafthd) and to-scale geogaphical
recreations of Denmark(go.pcworld.com/denmark),after all.
But the future isnt necessarily bleak! In fact, Microsoft can bring a
lot of good to the open world of Minecaft. Here are three ways
Microsoft could makeMinecaftbetter.
1. Augment it with Microsof servicesWhoa, whoa, dont go reaching for those pitchforks and torches just
NEWS
Minecafts
developer
community is
one key to its
success.
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yet. Stuffing Minecaftwith Microsoft sevices
sounds controversial, and it cetainly would be
if the company made Microsoft sevices vitalto the game. But Microsofts poweful stable
of sevices could be used to augment Minecaft
for the better.
Imagine using OneDrive to seamlessly sync
your Minecaftsave files between your various
Windows PCs and tablets, for example, or dumping Minecafts old-
school multiplayer chat for something running on Skypes backbone.
And switching hosted Minecaft Reamssevers over to Azures cloudcould be pretty painlessas long as Microsoft doesnt kill off the
ability to run custom severs in the process. But make all of those
things optional.
2. Be the rich uncleYes, Minecaftis astounding, and its frequently updated.
Nevetheless, the games development has been handled by a fairly
small number of people so farMojang has only a few dozen
employees. That small team has allowed the game to thrive under
the guiding vision of a few key people, but it also limits how much
the team can realistically accomplish.
Microsoft could make Minecaftbetter by staying mostly hands-
off, but giving Mojang all the financial backing and administative
suppot it needs to get even bigger. Let Microsofts team handle
all the marketing deals and buy a few more developers to helpbang out bug fixes and smaller features. In other words, let
Microsoft take over the busywork and let Mojangs best and
brightest shine at what they do best.
3. Bring Minecraf to Windows PhoneSpeaking of cross-platform availability, we should finally receive a
Windows Phone version of Minecaftnow. Persson was right:
Microsofts mobile platform has too few users to warant a pot from
Minecrafs smallteam has been ableto thrive under theguiding vision o aew key people.
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Mojangs tiny team. But that wont ly now that Microsoft is in charge
and facing daily complaints about the Windows Phone app gap.
Playing Minecafton a Lumia 1520 would be a joyjust dont sicMinecafts top developers on the boring conversion process. If
Microsoft developed it as a universal Windows app, it would run as a
Modern-style app on Windows 8 PCs and tablets, too, despite
Perssons hatred of the Windows Store.
Boom! Just like that there would be a version ofMinecaftoptimized
for the whole universe of Windows devices. But at the risk of sounding
like a broken record, Microsoft, dont add exclusive features to the
Windows Phone versionfor the love of all things blocky.
NEWS
-
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Get your digitalPCWorld now!
enhanced editions
The best way to experience
PCWorld magazine on your device.
Get it here: go.pcworld.com/digitalDIGITAL SUBSCRIPTIONS Monthly recurring, $1.99 per month; single issue, $6.99
The enhanced editions on Android, iPad, andKindle provide
these kinds of interactivity and more!
VIDEOS:Tap and play videos(with Internet connection).
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DEGREE VIEWS:See products from all angles.
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Kaspersky InternetSecurityMulti-Device2015Secure your PCs,
Macs, and Androidphones and tabletswith Kasperskysstellar security suite.
BY SARAH JACOBSSONPUREWAL
CONSUMERWATCH
Make smart purchases,stay safe online.
-
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G
IVEN THAT THE aveage person owns seveal Internet-
connected devices, a staight PC security progam doesnt
cut it anymore. Thats why companies such as Kasperskyare stating to offer cross-platform solutions that cost
only marginally more than taditional PC-only antivirus progams.
Covers five devices
For just $70 a year, Kaspersky Internet SecurityMulti-Device 2015
(go.pcworld.com/kaspersky2015)protects up to five devices, including
PCs, Macs, and Android phones and tablets. In addition to antivirus
protection, you get some useful Android safety features such as
protection against theft and loss, remote management, and
automatic app scanning.
Kaspersky Internet Security remains one of the best antivirus
progams on the market. AV-Test, an independent security research
institute, found no major differences (go.pcworld.com/avtestaward)
between the 2014 version of Kasperskys software (go.pcworld.com/
kaspersky2014rev)which got our highest score in this years securityshowdown (go.pcworld.com/securitysd2014)and the 2015 version.
Kasperksys
mainscreen
on a Mac.
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In AV-Tests real-world tests, Kaspersky
Internet SecurityMulti-Device 2015
successfully blocked all 31 of the maliciousURLs. In the malware zoo test, which
evaluates a software progams ability to
identify and block widespread known malware
discovered within the last month, Kaspersky
successfully detected and blocked 12,608
samples out of 12,618.
The suite got a pefect score for
distinguishing between threats and nonthreats. Peformance-wise,the suite is similar to the 2014 software, which had one of the
lightest footprints of any of the progams in our recent roundup.
RedesignedinterfaceBut while the 2015
software offers vituallythe same protection as its
predecessor, Kaspersky has
revamped the inteface. Its
still vey touchscreen-
friendly, with large buttons
and toggle switches, and
larger-than-aveage
checkboxes in the Settingsmenu, and yet the oveall
look is more polished.
The main screen features
a computer monitorwith
a checkmark denoting
that your PC is protected
and a red X indicating that
its notand four menu
CONSUMERWATCH
Kaspersky InternetSecurityMulti-Device 2015
PROS:
Excellent protection Great touchscreen inteface
CONS:
Five-device limit might not beaccommodating enough for some
people
BOTTOM LINE:
Top-notch, user-friendly protection
for your Mac, PCs, and Android
devices.
PRICE:
$70
The suites
inteface is
more polished,
but its still
touchscreen-
friendly.
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buttons: Scan, Update, Safe Money, and Parental Controls.
The Scan button takes you to a more-detailed menu where you can
run a full scan, a quick scan, or a custom scan; or you can scan yourremovable drives or set up a scan schedule. Safe Money is
Kasperskys online banking and payment protection
softwareselecting that button allows you to add a
list of websites you want to use with Kasperskys
Protected Browser for exta protection with
e-commerce tansactions.
Additional tools, which you access via a link in the
lower-right corner of the window, include BrowserConfiguation, a wizard that helps you optimize Web
browser settings; Privacy Cleaner, which clears your
computer of recent commands and accessed files;
and Cloud Protection, which connects you to
Kasperskys Security Network and offers instant
response to new threats.
Kaspersky always does a great job with its Settings
menu, which you can access by tapping the Settings
link in the lower-left corner of the main window. Its
organized into five categories (Geneal, Protection
Center, Peformance, Scan, and Additional), and
features touch-friendly controls and helpful
explanations, even in the advanced settings screens.
The botom lineKasperskys Internet SecurityMulti-Device 2015
is easy to recommend if youre a device junkie. Protection and
peformance are excellent, and it offers a more-polished inteface than
its predecessor without sacrificing usability. If youre just looking for PC
protection, however, you can save $10 with Kaspersky Internet Security
2015, which costs $60 for one year of protection for up to three PCs.
Internet SecurityMulti-Device2015 is easy torecommend ifyoure a devicejunkie.
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Poweliks malware hides inyour Registy, not your driveBY LUCIAN CONSTANTIN
CONSUMER
WATCH
A NEW MALWARE
progam called Poweliks attempts to evadedetection and analysis by running entirely from the Windows Registy
without creating files on disk, security researchers warn.
The concept of fileless malware that exists only in the systems
memoy is not new, but such threats are are because they typically
dont suvive across system reboots, when the memoy is cleared.
Thats not the case for Poweliks, which takes a ather new approach to
achieving persistence while remaining fileless, according to malware
researchers from G Data Software.
What the
malicious code
looks like.
CONSUMER
WATCH
The malicious pat of the
codebegins with MZ.
Two significant strings,MPRESS1 and
MPRESS2, are added by a packer called
MPress. This entire MZ (not shown here), is
the dangerous pat: It makes connections
to two IPs in Kazakhstan according to
GDatas SecurityBlog (go.pcworld.com/gd).
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How it works
When it infects a system, Poweliks creates a statup Registy enty
that executes the legitimate rundll32.exe Windows file followed bysome encoded JavaScript code. The JavaScript triggers a series of
nested actions, in which the attack unfolds step-by-step in the
manner of a Russian nesting doll, said Paul Rascagnres, senior threat
researcher at G Data, in a blog post(go.pcworld.com/gd).
The JavaScript code checks whether the system contains
Windows PowerShell, a command-line shell and scripting
environment. If it doesnt, the JavaScript downloads and installs
PowerShell and then it decodes additional code that is actually aPowerShell script.
The PowerShell script executes by using a trick to bypass a default
protection scheme in Windows that prevents the launch of unknown
PowerShell scripts without the users confirmation, Rascagnres
said. The script then decodes and executes shellcode, which injects a
DLL (dynamic link libay) directly into the system memoy.
Once it is running in memoy, the rogue DLL component connects
to two IP (Internet Protocol) addresses in Kazakhstan to receive
commands. It can be used to download and install other threats,
depending on the attackers desires and intentions.
OnePoweliks
dity trick
prevents a roguestatup Registy
key from being
detected.
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Unusually elusiveDuring the entire process, from executing the JavaScript code to the
final DLL injection, the malware creates no malicious files on the harddrive, making it difficult for antivirus progams to detect it.
Futhermore, the name of the statup Registy key created by Poweliks
is a non-ASCII chaacter. This is a trick that prevents
regeditthe Windows Registy editor tooland
possibly other progams from displaying the rogue
statup enty, making it difficult for both users and
malware analysts to manually spot the infection.
Triggered via spamSome Poweliks variants have been distributed
through malicious Microsoft Word documents
attached to spam emails that purpoted to come
from Canada Post or the USPS. The malicious
documents exploited a remote-code-execution
vulneability in Microsoft Office 2003, 2007, and2010 that was patched by Microsoft in April 2012
(go.pcworld.com/mspatch2012). However,
according to other repots, the malware is also
distributed through drive-by download attacks
that use Web exploits (go.pcworld.com/driveby).
To block malware like Poweliks, antivirus
solutions have to either catch the file (the initial
Word document) before it is executed (if there isone), prefeably before it reached the customers
email inbox, Rascagnres said. Or, as a next line of defense, they need
to detect the software exploit after the files execution, or, as a last
step, in-registy suveillance has to detect unusual behavior, block the
corresponding processes and alet the user.
Security researchers from Trend Micro, who have also analyzed the
threat(go.pcworld.com/trendmicropoweliks), believe that other mal-
ware creators may adopt the methods used by Poweliks in the future.
CONSUMERWATCH
Some Poweliksvarians havebeen disribuedhrough malicious
Microsof Worddocumensatached o spamemails hapurpored o comerom Canada Pos
or he USPS.
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THREE STEALTHY TRACKING mechanisms designed to avoid
weaknesses in browser cookies pose potential privacy risks to Internetusers, a new research paper has concluded.
The methodsknown as canvas fingerprinting, evercookies and
cookie syncingare in use across a ange of popular websites. The
findings, first repoted by Pro Publica (go.pcworld.com/propublica),
show how such tacking is impotant for providing targeted
advetising but that the privacy risks may be unknown to all but the
most sophisticated Web users.
Profiling Web users, including tacking the webpages a person has
Three devious ways online
tackers shatter your privacyBY JEREMY KIRK
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visited, is a cental component of
targeted advetising, which matches
ads with topics a person hasindicated through their browsing
that they may be interested in.
Targeted ads usually command
higher ates than untargeted ads do.
Cookies, which are data files
stored by a browser, have long
been used to tack users browsing
behavior, but a user can easilyblock or delete cookies, which renders them useless.
The methods the researchers studied are designed to enable
more-persistent tacking, but the research aises questions about
the degree to which users are aware of how much data about them
is being collected.
Advanced tracking techniquesThe researchers, from the University of Lueven in Belgium and
Princeton University, wrote in their paper (go.pcworld.com/
researchers) that they hope the findings will lead to better defenses
and increased accountability for companies deploying exotic
tacking techniques.
The tacking mechanisms we study are advanced in that they are
hard to control, hard to detect and resilient to blocking or
removing, they wrote.Although the tacking methods have been known about for some
time, the researchers showed how the methods are increasingly
being used on top-tier, highly tafficked websites.
Canvas fingerprintingOne of the techniques, called canvas fingerprinting, involves using a
Web browsers canvas API to daw an invisible image and extact a
fingerprint of a persons computer.
CONSUMERWATCH
The researchers
hope their paper
will prompt
greater oversight
of online tacking.
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It was thought canvas fingerprinting, first presented in a
research paper in 2012, was not used on websites. But 5000
of the top 100,000 websites (anked by metrics companyAlexa) now employ the technique, according to the paper.
More than 95 percent of those canvas-fingerprinting
scripts came from AddThis.com,a company that
specializes in online advetising and Web tacking tools.
EvercookiesThe researchers also found some top websites using a
method called respawning, where technologies such asAdobes Flash multimedia software are manipulated to
replace cookies that may have been deleted.
These evercookies are an extremely resilient tacking
mechanism, and have been found to be used by many
popular sites to circumvent delibeate user actions, the
researchers wrote (go.pcworld.com/evercookies).
Respawned Flash cookies were found on 107 of the top
10,000 sites.
Cookie syncingThe third method, cookie syncing, involves domains that share
pseudonymous IDs associated with a user. The pactice is also known
as cookie matchingand is a workaround for the same-origin policya
security measure that prevents sites from directly reading each
others cookies. Such matching is helpful for effectively targeting adsand for selling those ads in automated online auctions.
The researchers say that cookie syncing can greatly amplify privacy
breaches, since companies could merge their databases containing
the browsing histories of users theyre monitoring. Such sharing would
be hidden from public view.
All of this argues that greater oversight over online tacking is
becoming ever more necessay, they wrote.
Some topwebsites use
respawning,a techniquethat replacescookies a userhas deleted.
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You might know Joshua.He loves video games, and he
owns enough to know theyre not
all meant for kids. Thats why he
reminds his friends (at least the
ones that have kids) that they allhave big black letters on the box
to help parents find the ones that
are best for their families.
You can learn about those
ratings atESRB.org
Los Angeles, CA
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GET STARTEDwith Win-dows 8. Follow step-by-stepinstructions to install thenew opeating system.
BECOME AN ANDROIDauthority with this compre-hensive guide to theAndroid Honeycomb OS.
EXTEND BATTERY LIFEin your laptop, phone, andcamea with these usefulhints and tricks.
SPEED UP YOUR TECHgear that has lost its pep.These fixes will get you backinto the fast lane.
ICE CREAM SANDWICHis the most delicious AndroidOS yet. Get the scoop onGoogles latest mobile OS.
DISCOVER EVERYTHINGabout Windows 7. Uncoverits most useful features withthis hands-on guide.
GET THINGS DONE whileyou wait for a light. Findout which airpots are thebest for tech tavelers.
MASTER WINDOWS 7with these 50 essential tipsand secret utilities. MasterWindows Update, and more.
PCWorld Superguides are available in a variety of formats, so theyre easy toread on nearly any device.
The PCWorld Superguide SeriesGet PCWorlds thorough reference guides to help you learn more about yourtech gear. These books are packed with pactical how-to advice, in-depth fea-tures, tips and tricks, and much more.
Get Yours Today:pcworld.com/superguide
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Acer Switch 10:
Right idea, wrongexecution
2014 Razer Blade
Pro: Only slightly
better than last-years model
Toshibas Encore 2goes easy on yourwallet
Lenovo Y50: Great
peformance, subpardisplay
Matias Secure Pro:
A power tool for the
paanoid
Netgear NighthawkX6 Wi-Fi routerreview: The bestrouter for a crowdedhouse
REVIEWS
& RATINGS
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Acer Switch 10: Right idea,wrong executionThis convertible truly has a split personality. BY MICHELLE MASTIN
CER TRIES TO do Lenovos Yoga-series laptops one better
with its Switch 10(go.pcworld.com/acerswitch10):This
2-in-1 can fold into tent, presentation, and tablet modes
just like those famous convetibles. But you can
completely detach Acers 10-inch display from its keyboard dock to
tansform it into a true tablet.
You dont need to fumble with a release mechanism, either. Friction
A
TESTED IN PCWORLD LABS
In this section, hardware & softwarego through rigorous testing.
REVIEWS
& RATINGS
Watch thevideo at
go.pcworld.com/acer10vid.
http://go.pcworld.com/acerswitch10http://go.pcworld.com/acerswitch10http://www.go.pcworld.com/acer10vidhttp://www.go.pcworld.com/acer10vidhttp://www.go.pcworld.com/acer10vidhttp://www.go.pcworld.com/acer10vidhttp://www.go.pcworld.com/acer10vidhttp://www.go.pcworld.com/acer10vidhttp://go.pcworld.com/acerswitch10 -
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catches and strong magnets hold the two components together,
but the magnets are almost too poweful. Theyre supposed to
help guide a pair of sockets on the tablet to posts on the
keyboard, but I found myself constantly needing to reseat the
tablet, because the magnets seized the dock before I had an
oppotunity to line them up properly.
To sepaate the two, hold the keyboard down and give the
display a strong tug. The friction catches inside the tablet
sometimes take a few seconds to retact, with a disconceting
sound that had me wondering if something had come loose
inside the first few times I heard it. With devices that have360-degree hinges, presentation mode leaves the keyboard
facing down against your work suface, while putting it in tablet
You can detach the
Acer Switch 10s
display from its
keyboard dock to
make it a true
Windows tablet.
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mode leaves the keyboard facing out and against your hand.
Reversing the Switch 10s display leaves the keyboard facing up
behind it in presentation mode, and lat against the back of thedisplay in tablet mode. Tent mode is also available for those times
when your work suface is limitedsuch as an airline tay table.
This clever design is somewhat undermined by a less-than-
awesome display. I suppose a 10.1-inch, 1366-by-768-pixel display
is to be expected at the lower end of the tablet price ange, but
Acers panel doesnt get paticularly bright. Its the only tablet Ive
used where I felt the need to keep the brightness canked at all
times. The tablet looks bulkier than its 0.35-inch thickness and1.29-pound weight due to its wide black bezel, with a silver outer
fame. Front-firing speakers at the bottom (in notebook or
presentation mode) or top (in tent mode) get impressively loud.
Tent modemakes iteasy to watch movies in
camped spaces, such
as in an airline seat.
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The keyboards keys are small, lat, and surprisingly stiff. My first
keystroke failed to register until I became accustomed to its tactile
response and learned how hard I needed to strike the keys. The dockis also on the light side, given how heavy the tablet is. It tends to slide
around the desk when you tap its display in notebook mode.
The only pots on the tablet are micro and mini versions of USB
and HDMI, respectively. The tablet also suppots Miacast wireless
video streaming if you dont want to mess with using an HDMI
adapter to connect the tablet to a stand-alone display. Bluetooth
and 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi round out its wireless connectivity. The
included keyboard dock
has a full-size USB 2.0
pot, but no USB 3.0.
Less-than-dazzlingperformance
The rest of the Switch10s specs are standard
for the lower end of the
tablet ange. Acer
picked an Intel Atom
Z3745 (Bay Tail-class)
CPU and paired it with
2GB of DDR3/1066
memoy. A 64GB eMMC
drive provides the
stoage, which you can
supplement with a
MicroSD card. Acer also
offers a less-expensive
model with only 32GB of
stoage, but thats really
Acer Switch 10
PROS:
Easy-to-detach display
Keyboard faces back of display in
tablet mode; faces up in
presentation mode
CONS:
Lots of bezel surrounding the display
Stiff keyboard keys
Mediocre battey life
BOTTOM LINE:
The Acer Aspire Switch 10 is a novel
take on the 2-in-1 notebook/tablethybrid, but both the tablet and the
keyboard halves of the equation are
mediocre, and the tablets battey life
is too shot.
$430
REVIEWS& RATINGS
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Unlike withlaptopsthat have
360-degree hinges, you wont
feel the keys when you put the
Aspire Switch 10 in tablet mode.
pushing the lower limit for a machine running Windows 8.1.
With standard specs comes aveage peformance. The tablet is
pefectly acceptable in day-to-day usage, but my usage is not
paticularly demanding: I used email, Web browsing, YouTube and
Netlix, and Office, and all these tasks worked smoothly. The
Switch 10 outpeformed the Lenovo Yoga 2 11 and the HP Pavilion
x360 on the PCMark 8: Office benchmark by vitue of its lashstoage, not because its an inherently more poweful laptop.
Both the Lenovo and the HP Pavilion have mechanical hard
drives but faster CPUs, so both of them earned a higher laptop
WorldBench scores. And that makes it doubly disappointing
that the Acers battey died 7 minutes sooner than the Lenovos
did (the Pavilion x360s battey life of less than 3.5 hours is, for
what its woth, atrocious).
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Buy one, or keep shopping?If a 2-in-1 with a detachable display is what you cave, Id suggest
taking a look at the Asus Tansformer Book T100(go.pcworld.com/acetbook100). Its a little thicker, but it weighs about the same.
More impotantly, it has a better keyboard, and the 64GB model
has the same street price as the 32GB version of the Acer Switch
10. The 64GB version reviewed here costs $80 more.
REVIEWS& RATINGS
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2014 Razer Blade Pro: A bit
better than last-years modelBY HAYDEN DINGMAN
RAZERS 2014 BLADE Pro seems to be caught between two hardware
geneations. While its less-professional cousin, the 14-inch Blade,
benefits from an enormous bump in gaphics horsepower and display
resolution this year, the 17-inch Razer Blade Pro(go.pcworld.com/
azerbladepro)looks much the same as it did in 2013.Razer abided by the If it isnt broken, dont fix it axiom here. The
Blade Pro was a beautiful, sleek, and capable machine in 2013, and all
that remains true in its present incarnation.
The Blade Pro ships with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 860M thats slightly
faster than last years 765M gaphics processor. Nvidia has cammed
some new game-related features into the 800M series though:
Battey Boost and ShadowPlay.
Watch thevideo at
go.pcworld.com/razervid.
http://go.pcworld.com/razerbladeprohttp://go.pcworld.com/razerbladeprohttp://go.pcworld.com/razerbladeprohttp://www.go.pcworld.com/razervidhttp://www.go.pcworld.com/razervidhttp://www.go.pcworld.com/razervidhttp://www.go.pcworld.com/razervidhttp://go.pcworld.com/razerbladeprohttp://go.pcworld.com/razerbladepro -
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Battey Boost allows the computer to dynamically adjust the power
daw of the GPU to keep games at a steady 30 fames per second (or
higher or lower, depending on your preferences). ShadowPlay catersto the YouTube, share-eveything obsession of modern players by
automatically capturing footage in the background without a
peformance hit.
Also under the hood: an
Intel i7-4700HQ processor
(the same as in last years
model), 16GB of DDR3/
1600 memoy (twice asmuch as last year), and a
128GB, 256GB, or 512GB
solid-state drive (our
review unit was outfitted
with a 256GB SSD). There
are no other options for
more-capacious on-board
stoage, so digital hoarders
beware. Three USB 3.0
pots are on the left side
of the machine, along
with HDMI, a combo
headphone/microphone
pot, and a gigabit
ethernet pot. If you preferto go wireless, the Blade
Pro spots an 802.11ac
Wi-Fi adapter and
Bluetooth 4.0.
In lay termsSo what does all that
mean for pactical, day-
Razer Blade Pro(Model RZ09-00117)
PROS:
Gorgeous aluminum chassis
Relatively thin and light for a
17-inch gaming laptop
Innovative SwitchBlade user
inteface (when it works)
CONS:
The SwitchBlade touchscreenhas too much friction to be a
good tackpad
Middle-of-the-road peformance
Only incremental component
upgades from the 2013 model
BOTTOM LINE:
The 2014 Razer Blade Pro is
overshadowed by its smaller
compatriot, the 14-inch Razer
Blade; but its attactive price-to-
peformance atio renders it
wothy of consideation.
$2300
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to-day use? Pefectly acceptable peformance that wont take your
breath away, but that stacks up fine against the competition on
most counts. Razers machine earned a laptop WorldBench 9 score
of 106, which put it just slightly ahead of our reference machine: a
Dell XPS 15 with an Intel Core i7-4702HQ and an Nvidia GeForce GT
750M video processor.
The Blade Pros gaming peformance wont blow your mind, either,
but it does exceed the 60-fames-per-second threshold that most
gamers expect from a gaming rig. The Blade Pro delivered BioShock
Infinite at 70.4 fps, with resolution set to 1920 by 1080 pixels and
image quality set to Medium. The Blade Pros battey hung on for arespectable 3 hours, 18 minutes in our punishing battey-dain test.
In shot, the Blade Pros peformance is at the high end of the laptop
scale, but its far from the top of the heap.
Weigh matersThe Blade Pro weighs in at just 6.6 pounds, and its power supply adds
just 1 pound more). And the laptop is a svelte 0.88 inch thick. Those
measurements put the Razer Pro in the same class as Apples
The Razer Blade Profeatures a large
17-inch display and an all-aluminum chassis.
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MacBook Pro line, with similar attention paid to aesthetics.
And then theres the SwitchBlade.
The SwitchBladeThe SwitchBlade is the feature that sets the Blade Pro apat from
the smaller, lighter Blade. Its essentially a low-resolution,
touchscreen display embedded in the right side of the keyboard,
supplemented by ten LCD buttons. The screen can display just
about anything, and you use Razers software to map context-
sensitive commands to the ten buttons above it. You can play agame on the primay display, for instance, and watch a YouTube
video, browse Twitter, or chat with your Twitch viewers.
Its a vey cool concept, but the compromises Razer had to make
to build a device thats both a touchpad and a display culminate in
an undewhelming experience. Images look disappointingly fuzzy.
And unlike with a genuine touchscreen, you cant use the display as
a tackpad while SwitchBlade is active.
Is it for you?The Blade Pro is a modeately poweful machine designed for the
aveage user, not the hard-core crowd. While I love a laptop that can
run games on the highest settings without a stutter, normal
gaming laptops are potable in name only. The Blade Pro isnt as fast
as those machines, but its a lot easier on my back when I need to
hit the road. And its beautiful. Heres hoping Razer gives the 2015
model the full makeover it deseves.
All the Blade
ProsI/O pots
are on the left
side, so righties
will need to
route the mouse
cable around the
back of the
display.
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BY MICHELLE MASTIN
Toshibas Encore 2 goes easyon your wallet
MICROSOFT SPARKED A RACEto the bottom when it introduced
Windows 8.1 with Bing, and Toshiba is leading that ace with its
Encore 2(go.pcworld.com/encore2)series, which brings Windows
tablets down to the price of mainstream Android tablets. The 10-inch
Encore 2 that I tried will set you back just $270, and the 8-inch version
costs just $200.
How many compromises must you accept at prices that low?
Surprisingly few. Although the Encore 2s build quality isnt the best,
the tablet is sturdy enough that I wouldnt wory about sliding it into
a bag and carying it around all day. The tablet feels plasticky, but its
light at just 1.2 pounds. And since that weight is concentated in a
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slab measuring only 0.375
inch thick, it feels solid. I
could hold it comfotably inone hand for extended
periods, and thats
something I cant usually say
about 10-inch tablets.
The white bezel and
champagne-colored back help the Encore 2 stand out in a market full of
black and silver. The IPS-panel display delivers a run-of-the-mill
resolution of 1280 by 800 pixels, but it boasts good viewing angles. Thescreen dims enough to be comfotable to look at in dark environments,
but youll want to cank it all the way up to work in a well-lit room.
I encountered
intermittent responsiveness
issues with the touch-
screen. A firmware update
helped the situation, but
the problem never
disappeared entirely, and I
never could isolate the
cause. When the problem
became too annoying, a
quick reboot geneally
smoothed things out.
A small Toshiba logooccupies the tablets front
bezel, but Toshiba has
replaced the capaci-
tive Stat button of the
previous-geneation Encore
with a physical button on
the top edge of the Encore
2. Youll also find a volume
Toshiba Encore 2(10-inch version)
PROS:
Vey inexpensive for its size Solid industrial design Good battey life
CONS:
Just 1GB of RAM Low-quality camea
Intermittent touchscreen-responseproblems
Bottom line: Toshiba made a few
compromises in the Encore 2, but it
runs Windows 8.1 and Office 365
well enough.
$270
Most of the
Toshiba Encore
2s pots arelocated on its
right-hand side.
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rocker and a power button here. I prefer the real button to the touch-
sensitive version, as Im less likely to activate such a button by mistake.
Stereo speakers on each side work well for video and music
playback in a quiet room, and the tablet also has a headset jack for
private listening and video calls. A MicroSD slot lets you expand theEncore 2s measly 32GB of stoage, and Micro HDMI and Micro-USB
pots sit on the same edge. Wireless connectivity includes
802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0.
Intels quad-core Atom Z3735G (a Bay Tail-class processor) powers
the Encore 2, but the tablets 1GB of nonupgadable memoy leaves me
a bit nevous. When is the last time you an Windows on anything with
that little RAM? That said, this tablet runs Office 365 without a problem
(Toshiba includes a one-year Office 365 subscription).
The Encore 2sWorldBench 9 peformance lags that of the rest of the test group.
Toshiba Encore 2
Laptop WorldBench 9 performance
LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORM ANCE.
0 10 2015 25 30
19
Toshiba Encore 2(Intel Atom Z3735G)
23
Acer Switch 10(Intel Atom Z3745)
24
Lenovo ThinkPad 10(Intel Atom Z3795)
29
Dell Venue 11 Pro(Intel Atom Z3770)
5 35
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In fact, the peformance hit as a whole isnt as significant as I
expected. The Encore 2 turned in lower benchmark scores than other
Windows tablets weve tested, but they werent dastically lower. And
while its PCMark 8 Office score was 22 percent lower than that of the
$430 Dell Venue Pro 11, it was just 14 percent lower than the $569
Lenovo ThinkPad 10s score.
I used the Encore 2 and a Bluetooth keyboard to write this entire
review in OneNote without encountering any significant slow-downs. I also used the Encore 2 as I have evey other tablet Ive
reviewed: I read and wrote email messages,
sufed the Web using multiple tabs, streamed
Netlix movies, and noodled around small-
footprint modern-UI apps. The only difference I
noticed is that apps clear out of memoy more
quickly; that just means apps must refresh if
they fall more than four or five places down thequeue in the sidebar app switcher.
Full-featured Windows tablets, such as the aforementioned Dell
and Lenovo models, can replace a laptop (as long as you add
peripheals such as a Bluetooth keyboard). I cant envision Toshibas
Encore 2 that way--its more of a companion device for light
productivity and entetainment. For the price, though, that might
be enough.
This is more of acompanion devicefor light productivityand entertainment.
Toshibamoved
the Stat button
to the top edge,
next to a volume
rocker and
power switch.
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Lenovo Y50:Great peformance,subpar displayBY HAYDEN DINGMAN
AT LAST, GAMING laptops are
becoming slim and light enough to fit
comfotably on your lap. The 2014
Lenovo Y50 (go.pcworld.com/
lenovoy50).isnt quite as slim as, say,
the 0.7-inch-thick Razer Blade, but at
a thickness of 0.9 inch and a weight of
5.4 pounds, the Y50 is still incrediblysmall for a gaming laptop.
The Y50 delivers a strong price-to-
peformance atio. Our $1299
configuation shipped with a 2.4GHz
Intel Core i7-4700HQ CPU, plus an
Nvidia GeForce GTX 860M gaphics
card. Thats pretty much the same
core hardware as in Razers largerlaptop, the Razer Blade Pro
(see our review on page
50). But considering
Lenovo Y50 is thin
for a gaming
laptop.
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that the Razer Blade Pro costs $1000
more, the Y50 is one of the best
midpriced gaming laptops in terms ofbang for the buck.
The gaphics card features Nvidias
Battey Boost technology, which
adjusts the GPUs power daw to keep
games at a steady fame ate while putting the lightest load possible
on the computers battey. And Nvidias ShadowPlay technology
allows you to record game footage without a peformance hit.
The Y50 comes with 16GBof DDR3L/1600 RAM and a
1TB, 5400-rpm hybrid hard
drive with 8GB of solid-state
stoage. A hybrid drive is
better than a purely
mechanical one--especially
one that spins its platters
at just 5400 rpmbut its
still a letdown when most
gaming laptops are moving
exclusively to SSDs.
Admittedly, SSDs are
expensive, so Im sure this
was one of Lenovos cost-
cutting moves.On the left side are two
USB 3.0 slots, an HDMI-out
pot, ethernet, and the
power input. On the right are
a USB 2.0 pot, a memoy-
card reader, a headset jack, an
S/PDIF audio-out, and a
security-lock slot.
Lenovo Y50
PROS:
Strong price-to-peformance atio Attactively thin brushed-
aluminum enclosure
Good-quality speakersCONS:
Abysmal display with limitedviewing angles
Flimsy, awkwardly locatedtouchpad
Mushy keyboard
BOTTOM LINE:
The Lenovo Y50 is a bargain
provided you can toleate its subpar
display, keyboard, and touchpad.
$1299
The Lenovo Y50 is one
of the best midpricedgaming laptops in termof bang for the buck.
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In our Laptop WorldBench tests, the Y50 posted a middling score of 90,
lower than the score of 100 for our baseline model (Dell XPS 15, Intel
Core i7-4702HQ, Nvidia GeForce GT 750M) and much lower than the
Alienware 17s score of 122.When we moved over to games--which are less restricted by a systems
hard drive--the Y50 began to hold its own. Running Battlefield 4at 1920 by
1080 and at medium settings, the Y50 churned out a pefectly respectable
fame ate of 92.5 fames per second. Its pretty much on a par with the
Alienware 17, which geneated a fame ate of 98 fps, and its definitely
better than the 60-fps ate most PC gamers consider to be standard.
In the BioShock Infinitetest, the Lenovo Y50 managed a fame ate of
73 fps, which was slightly better than the Razer Blade Pros ate of 70
The Y50s WorldBench score is 10 percent lower than that of the Dell XPS 15 weve
been using as a reference point.
Lenovo Y50
Laptop WorldBench 9 performance
LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORM ANCE. THE BASELINE SCORE IS 100.
0 40 8060 100 120
90
Lenovo Y50
(Intel Core i7-4700HQ,
Nvidia GeForce GTX 860M)
122
Alienware 17
(Intel Core i7-4910MQ,
Nvidia GeForce GTX 880M)
106
Razer Blade Pro
(Intel Core i7-4700HQ,
Nvidia GeForce GTX 860M)
100Dell XPS 15
(Intel Core i7-4702HQ,
Nvidia GeForce GT 750M)
20 140
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fps but far shot of the Alienware 17s 121-fps peformance.
The Y50s battey clung to life for 3 hours, 16 minutes--almost exactly
the same as the Razer Blade Pros time of 3 hours, 18 minutes, and about20 minutes longer than the Alienware 17s battey life.
Substandard screen and keyboardWhat allowed Lenovo to create a poweful laptop that sells for less than
its competitors? Many, many compromises.
For staters, Lenovo chose an
abysmal LCD panel. The 1920-by-1080
display is one of the worst HD screensIve ever used. Its dim, its lousy at
color reproduction, and it looks even
worse from slightly off-axis. The
screen is so ugly and blury that I found myself not wanting to use the
laptop even to watch movies, let alone play games.
The keyboards red backlighting is attactive, and the keys have a soft
and silky finish. By shrinking the keys to squeeze in a numeric keypad,
however, Lenovo made typing a pain. The Enter key and the right Shift
key arent liable to give you problems, but the comically small Backspace
key probably will. The keys feel a bit mushy, too; despite how little they
need to tavel to register, I dropped strokes with regularity.
The touchpad is annoying. Because its off-center, I couldnt help
dagging my left palm or the heel of my thumb across the touchpad
The full-size
gigabit
ethernet jack
has a spring-
loaded,
hinged jaw.
The Lenovos display isone of the worst HDscreens Ive ever used.
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while typing. Even when I could refain from accidentally triggering the
cursor while hammering out a Word document, the recessed touchpad
made for an uncomfotable palm rest. And when you click the ather
loose bottom left and right edges, they produce a squawking noise. The
whole contaption feels limsy.
On the bright side, the Y50s speakers pump out decent audio with
better bass response than the typical treble-heavy laptop speakersdeliver. Manufacturers building computers that retail for much higher
prices could learn a thing or two from Lenovos patnership with JBL.
Lenovos Y50 is a great choice if youre looking for a potable gaming rig
on a budget. If you cant toleate the tade-offs Lenovo made, however,
consider spending more money on a competing offering.
Lenovo workedwith JBL
on the speaker design.
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& RATINGS
Matias Secure Pro:A power tool for the paanoid
BY HAYDEN DINGMAN
ALTHOUGH THE $170 Matias Secure Pro (go.pcworld.com/
matiassecpro)wireless keyboards number one claim to fame is its
128-bit AES encyption (more about that later), I have to say its more
notable for being quiet. Youd hardly know this was a mechanicalkeyboard from what little sound it makes. The noise level is close to
that of a typical membane keyboard, just a bit sharper or clickier at
times. You could use this ather pricey keyboard in an office or a
bedroom without disturbing a soul.
Im not a huge fan of typing on it, however. Instead of providing the
ergonomic relief I expect from a mechanical keyboard, the switches
inside the Secure Pro tire out my fingers. Activating a key on the
Secure Pro reminds me of using a rubber-dome keyboard: Significantresistance at the top begins to yield only as you push past that initial
The Secure
Pro is compact,
quietand
pricey.
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hurdle. Even if you like high resistance
in your keyboards, youd probably be
better seved by a buckling-springswitch, which spreads resistance out
over the path of the entire keystroke. I
appreciated the muted click of the keys, as that provided some
tactile feedback, but this isnt the sot of keyboard Id pick up for day-
to-day use.
More troubling is that I constantly made typos with the Secure Pro.
I dont know whether its because the activation point is so high or
because the resistance is so strong, but I dropped letters from mywords regularly, and the
spacebar was paticularly
tempeamental.
I also encountered a few
issues with the keyboards
200MHz polling ate. Even
though 200MHz is fine for
most low-intensity uses, I did
notice a slight lag while
gaming. Thats to be expected
from a wireless keyboard, and
it explains why most gaming
keyboards are wired.
The Secure Pro is highly
potable. While its a bitheavy for its size, I could see
myself taking this keyboard
on the road. Its hard to
convey how small it is, even
for a keyboard without a
dedicated numeric keypad.
The keys arent as camped
as those on the typical
Matias Secure Pro
PROS:
Solid construction Long-lasting battey
PotableCONS:
Mechanical switches feel morelike rubber domes
Camped key layout Scattered media-player controls
BOTTOM LINE:
This quiet, compact, wireless
mechanical keyboard boasts an
over-the-top security feature. Its
switches have high resistance,
though, and its expensive.
$170
This isnt the sort ofkeyboard Id pick up forday-to-day use.
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laptop, but they are closer together than a standard desktop models.
Even after a few days of use, I had difficulty getting my fingers properly
aligned without looking down.I was disappointed with the awkward spacing of the media-control
keys. You must hold down the Fn key to opeate them, and the Play/
Pause function sits all the way across the board on the Esc key. The
spacing makes it easier to remember which media functions are where,
but quickly opeating them one-handed is almost impossible.
The Secure Pro has USB hubs on its casing, but theyre strictly for
charging--no mouse connections or data tansfers here. Matias claims
that, on a single charge, the battey will last six months to a year.Charging a second USB device requires supplemental power (thus
negating the keyboards wireless feature). A handy battey-indicator LED
The volume
buttons share spacewith the arrow keys.
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sits on the Caps Lock key, but the keyboard stangely lacks an indicator
LED for the status of Caps Lock itself.
As for the keyboards touted 128-bit AES encyption: When was thelast time you worried about someone intercepting the data taveling
from your wireless keyboard to your computer?
For me, the answer is never. Wireless-keyboard signals are so weak that
a miscreant would need to be in the same room--or at most, the next
room over--to intercept the tansmissions. Whats more, Logitech,
Microsoft, and other manufacturers build wireless keyboards with signal
encyption without boasting about it.
Your keyboard is highly unlikely to be the failure point in your data-security scheme, but I wont make fun of people who genuinely wory
about such threats. If youre in that camp, the Secure Pro seems to hold
up its end of the bargain: Matias claims that the keyboards 128-bit AES
encyption is the highest available on a wireless keyboard and would
take a billion-billion years to cack.
The Matias Secure Pro is a well-built, quiet, potable mechanical
keyboard with a robust--if perhaps exce